As you know, I love gardening and friends gave me two chili plants for my birthday this year. One of them is the habanero, and I don’t even know what the other is, but it has fruits very similar to the habanero. Surprisingly it turns out that they are both super spicy – so spicy that I ended up cooking 15 times more hot sauce than I intended as the batch started with was so super spicy, I was not able to eat more than a drop. And I love spice! So now my fridge is basically filled with hot sauce and not much of anything else fits in there anymore. I guess my future is spicy. And if somebody invites me to a birthday party, you better believe that the gift is going to be in a nice bottle of hot sauce.
For you, I calculated the more reasonable amounts as nobody needs a ton of hot sauce. Of course, when adding habaneros make sure you know your spice tolerance. I assume nobody starts cooking hot sauce if they don’t like spice, but still – there is a difference between spicy and spicy, so maybe start with 3 chilies. And if it turns out too spicy be like me – add more mangoes and more vinegar, bring to a boil and blend again. I ended up going grocery shopping for more mangoes and apple cider vinegar 3 times. And I am not even exaggerating.
Once you are done with the sauce, bottle it up in clean jars and it will keep in the fridge for at least a few months as it contains a lot of vinegar. The sauce is delicious on pizza and sandwiches, mixed with Greek-style yogurt for a quick dip and everywhere else that needs a little spice.
Mango-Habanero Hot Sauce
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
3-4 yellow habanero chilies
2 large ripe mangoes, diced
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ tsp salt
1-2 tbsp coconut sugar
Instructions:
1. Chop the habaneros. Large junks are okay as we are blending them later anyway.
2. Place the chili in the pan with vinegar and salt, and let simmer on low for 10 minutes.
3. Add mango cubes and simmer for 10 more minutes under the lid. Mix in 1 tbsp of coconut sugar.
4. Place into the blender and blend until smooth. Have a taste, and add more sugar if you feel like it.
5. Bottle up and drizzle on everything that needs a little kick.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: www.kahvliga.ee.